What is "KAZAK"? What is the correct spelling of this word. Concept and interpretation.
COSSACK A descendant of the Cossacks, a native of those places where the Cossack troops were located. The word Cossack was borrowed by Russian from the Turkic languages, where it meant ‘free, independent person, vagabond’. In the XIV-XV centuries. so they began to call peasants (see peasant) and urban (posad) people who fled from the central regions of Russia and Ukraine to the southern and southeastern outskirts of the state, where they created communities of free people. The Cossacks settled in the lower reaches of the rivers Dnieper, Don, Volga, in the Urals. The basis of their life was originally crafts - hunting, fishing, later - cattle breeding and agriculture. Gradually, the Cossacks formed their own army, and the booty that they took during their campaigns, fighting on the borders of Russia with the nomads, also became an important source of livelihood for the Cossacks. Starting from the XVI century. the tsarist government sought to use the Cossacks to protect the borders, develop new lands in the Urals and Siberia. Therefore, the royal salary, weapons, bread were sent to the Cossacks. Gradually, the Cossacks turned into a special privileged military class. In the XVI-XVII centuries. the Cossacks enjoyed autonomy in the field of court, administration and external relations. The Cossacks wrote glorious pages in the history of the country: led by Yermak, S.I. Dezhnev, E.P. Khabarov and others actively participated in the development of Siberia and the Far East by the Russians, played an important role in protecting and expanding the state borders of Russia. The tsarist government, seeking to subjugate the Cossacks, from the XVIII century. gradually began to limit the autonomy of the Cossack regions. This was one of the reasons for the active participation of the Cossacks in uprisings and peasant wars in the 17th–18th centuries. (see Stepan Razin, E.I. Pugachev). At the beginning of the XVIII century. Cossack communities were transformed into Cossack troops, and in the second half of the 18th century. they were completely subordinate to the government. At the same time, the Cossacks enjoyed significant privileges: they retained personal freedom - they were not serfs (see serfs), they were exempted from paying state taxes; the land occupied by the Cossack troops was transferred to them for "perpetual use". Cossack villages - villages - lived according to their own laws, their inhabitants - villagers - were warriors and farmers. The Cossack community combined social, economic and military functions. All the most important matters were discussed by the general meeting (or circle, gathering) of the Cossacks. He was chosen from among the most authoritative Cossacks, and from the 19th century. was appointed, foreman - chieftain. In the XVIII - early XX centuries. the entire adult male Cossack population from the age of 18 was obliged to perform military service (in the 18th century. - 25-35 years, in the XIX century. - 20 years). The Cossack came to the service with his uniform (clothes), edged weapons and a riding horse. The Cossacks were distinguished by high combat skills, desperate courage, loyalty to military duty and fearlessness. Cossack units played a prominent role in the wars of Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. The tsarist government made extensive use of the Cossacks for protection, police service and suppression of the national liberation and revolutionary movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the beginning of the XX century. in Russia there were 11 Cossack troops, named after the territories in which they were located: Donskoy, Kuban, Terek, Orenburg, Ural, Siberian, Amur, etc. During the Civil War, the Cossacks acted mainly on the side of the counter-revolutionary forces; a significant part of the Cossacks ended up in the ranks of the White Guard. The poorest sections of the Cossacks supported the Soviet government and fought in the Red Army. The commanders of the Cossack formations of the Red Army became famous: S.M. Budyonny, L.M. Dovator, I.A. Pliev and others. In 1920, the Cossacks, like other estates, were abolished. At the end of the 20-30s. thousands of Cossacks who fought on the side of the whites or sympathized with them were subjected to repression. Since the second half of the 80s. 20th century in Russia there is a process of revival of the Cossacks. On the lands where the Cossack troops were traditionally located, public organizations are being created, the purpose of which is to restore the Cossack self-government, military and cultural traditions. The Cossacks created their own original culture, which is a branch of Slavic culture (Russian and Ukrainian). Cossack songs are especially famous. The most famous of them: “A young Cossack walks along the Don”, “What you were, you remained so ....” (from the film “Kuban Cossacks” by I.A. Pyryev). The life of the Cossacks is described in many works of Russian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. The most famous are the story of L.N. Tolstoy "Cossacks", epic novel "Quiet Don" and "Don stories" M.A. Sholokhov. The adjectives Cossack and Cossack are formed from the noun Cossack. The word Cossack is used in combinations that mean ‘related to the Cossacks’, as well as to the Cossack troops (Cossack village, Cossack officer, Cossack regiment). The word Cossack is used in combination with the meaning 'like a Cossack' - a Cossack hat, a Cossack saddle. The word Cossack in our time also retains a figurative meaning - ‘free, free, independent person’, which is manifested in the stable phrase free Cossack. Horse Cossack. Engraving of the middle of the 19th century: Cossack village: Modern Don Cossacks: Cossack choir:
COSSACK- Cossack m. or Cossack (probably from the Central Asian kazmak, to wander, wander like a hayduk, haydamak ...
In ancient times, on our land, the states did not touch their borders as they do now. Between them there were gigantic spaces in which no one lived - it was either impossible due to the lack of conditions for life (no water, land for crops, you can’t hunt if there is little game), or simply dangerous because of the raids of the steppe nomads. It was in such places that the Cossacks were born - on the outskirts of the Russian principalities, on the border with the Great Steppe. In such places, people gathered who were not afraid of a sudden raid by the steppes, who knew how to survive and fight without outside help.
The first mention of the Cossack detachments dates back to Kievan Rus, for example, Ilya Muromets was called the "old Cossack". There are references to the participation of Cossack detachments in the Battle of Kulikovo under the command of the governor Dmitry Bobrok. By the end of the XIV century, two large territories were formed in the lower reaches of the Don and the Dnieper, on which many Cossack settlements were created, and their participation in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible is already undeniable. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and in the Livonian War. The first Russian charter of the village guard service was compiled by the boyar M. I. Vorotynsky in 1571. According to it, the guard service was carried out by the village (guard) Cossacks or villagers, while the city (regimental) Cossacks defended the cities. In 1612, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia, the Don Cossacks liberated Moscow and expelled the Poles from the Russian land. For all these merits, the Russian tsars approved for the Cossacks the right to own the Quiet Don forever and ever.
The Ukrainian Cossacks at that time were divided into registered in the service of Poland and grassroots, which created the Zaporozhian Sich. As a result of political and religious pressure from the Commonwealth, the Ukrainian Cossacks became the basis of the liberation movement, raised a series of uprisings, the last of which, led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, achieved its goal - Ukraine was reunited with the Russian kingdom by the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654. For Russia, the agreement led to the acquisition of part of the lands of Western Rus', which justified the title of Russian tsars - the sovereign of All Rus'. Moscow Rus became a collector of lands with a Slavic Orthodox population.
Both the Dnieper and the Don Cossacks at that time were at the forefront of the struggle against the Turks and Tatars, who constantly raided Russian lands, devastating crops, driving people into captivity and bleeding our lands. Innumerable feats were accomplished by the Cossacks, but one of the most striking examples of the heroism of our ancestors is the Azov seat - eight thousand Cossacks, having captured Azov - one of the most powerful fortresses and an important communications junction - were able to fight off the two hundred thousandth Turkish army. Moreover, the Turks were forced to retreat, losing about a hundred thousand soldiers - half of their army! But over time, Crimea was liberated, Turkey was forced out of the Black Sea shores far to the south, and the Zaporizhzhya Sich lost its significance as an advanced outpost, finding itself several hundred kilometers deep in peaceful territory. On August 5, 1775, by the signing by the Russian Empress Catherine II of the manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province”, the Sich was finally disbanded. Zaporizhzhya Cossacks then divided into several parts. The most numerous moved to the Black Sea Cossack army, which carried border guards on the shores of the Black Sea, a significant part of the Cossacks was resettled to protect the southern borders of Russia in the Kuban and Azov. Five thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey, the Sultan allowed the founding of the Transdanubian Sich. In 1828, the Transdanubian Cossacks with the koshev Yosip Gladkiy went over to the side of Russia and were pardoned personally by Emperor Nicholas I. Throughout the vast territory of Russia, the Cossacks began to carry out border service. No wonder the Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III once aptly remarked: “The borders of the Russian state lie on the archak of the Cossack saddle ...”
Donets, Kuban, Terts, and later their brothers-in-arms, the Urals and Siberians, were the permanent military vanguard in all wars in which Russia fought almost without respite for centuries. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in the Patriotic War of 1812. The memory of the legendary commander of the Don Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who led the Cossack regiments from Borodino to Paris, is still alive. The very regiments about which Napoleon would say with envy: "If I had a Cossack cavalry, I would have conquered the whole world." Patrols, reconnaissance, security, distant raids - all this everyday hard military work was carried out by the Cossacks, and their battle order - Cossack lava - showed itself in all its glory in that war.
In the popular mind, the image of the Cossack as a natural equestrian warrior has developed. But there was also the Cossack infantry - scouts - which became the prototype of modern special forces. It originated on the Black Sea coast, where the scouts carried out a difficult service in the Black Sea floodplains. Later, units of scouts also successfully operated in the Caucasus. The fearlessness of the scouts - the best guards of the cordon line in the Caucasus - was paid tribute to even by their opponents. It was the highlanders who preserved the story of how the scouts, besieged at the Lipka post, preferred to burn alive - but not surrender to the Circassians, who even promised them life.
However, Cossacks are known not only for military exploits. They played no lesser role in the development of new lands and their annexation to the Russian Empire. Over time, the Cossack population moved forward to the uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development of the North Caucasus, Siberia (Yermak's expedition), the Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk. In 1648, the Siberian Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed from the Arctic Ocean (the mouth of the Kolyma) to the Pacific Ocean (the mouth of the Anadyr) and opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1697-1699 the Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov explored Kamchatka.
Cossacks during the First World War
On the very first day of the First World War, the first two regiments of the Kuban Cossacks went to the front from the Yekaterinodar railway station. On the fronts of the First World War, eleven Cossack troops of Russia fought - Donskoy, Ural, Terskoye, Kuban, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Siberian, Transbaikal, Amur, Semirechenskoye and Ussuriisk - without knowing cowardice and desertion. Their best qualities were especially clearly manifested on the Transcaucasian front, where 11 Cossack regiments of the third stage were formed only in the militia - from Cossacks of older ages, who at times could give odds to young cadres. Thanks to their incredible stamina in the heavy battles of 1914, it was they who did not allow the Turkish troops to break through - far from the worst at that time! - to our Transcaucasia and, together with the arrived Siberian Cossacks, threw them back. After the grandiose victory in the Battle of Sarykamysh, Russia received congratulations from the allied commanders-in-chief, Joffre and French, who highly appreciated the strength of Russian weapons. But the pinnacle of martial art in Transcaucasia was the capture of the mountainous fortified region of Erzerum in the winter of 1916, in the storming of which the Cossack units played an important role.
The Cossacks were not only the most dashing cavalrymen, but also served in intelligence, artillery, infantry and even aviation. So, the native Kuban Cossack Vyacheslav Tkachev made the first long-distance flight in Russia along the route Kyiv - Odessa - Kerch - Taman - Yekaterinodar with a total length of 1500 miles, despite the adverse autumn weather and other difficult conditions. On March 10, 1914, he was seconded to the 4th aviation company for its formation, and on the same day the lieutenant Tkachev was appointed commander of the XX aviation detachment attached to the headquarters of the 4th Army. In the initial period of the war, Tkachev made several very important reconnaissance flights for the Russian command, for which, by Order of the Army of the Southwestern Front dated November 24, 1914, No. 290, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George IV degree (the first among pilots).
The Cossacks showed themselves very well in the Great Patriotic War. In this most severe and difficult time for the country, the Cossacks forgot past grievances, and together with the entire Soviet people rose to defend their homeland. With honor passed until the end of the war, participating in major operations, the 4th Kuban, 5th Don Cossack Volunteer Corps. 9th Plastun Red Banner Krasnodar Division, dozens of rifle and cavalry divisions formed at the beginning of the war from the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, Stavropol, Orenburg, Urals, Semirechye, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Guards Cossack formations often performed a very important task - while mechanized formations formed the inner ring of numerous "cauldrons", the Cossacks as part of cavalry-mechanized groups broke into the operational space, disrupted the enemy's communications and created an outer ring of encirclement, preventing the release of enemy troops. In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or plastun units, but in the entire Soviet army or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace No. 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless; Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - a generic Ural Cossack, a native of Omsk; Commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral A.A. Golovko - Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya; weapons designer F.V. Tokarev - a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Yegorlyk Region of the Don Army; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Fronts, General of the Army, Hero of the USSR M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Ust-Medveditskaya Region of the Don Army, the commander of the squadron of the guard, Captain K.I. Nedorubov - Hero of the Soviet Union and full Knight of St. George, as well as many other Cossacks.
All the wars of our time, which the Russian Federation has already had a chance to wage, also could not do without the Cossacks. In addition to the conflicts in Transnistria and Abkhazia, the Cossacks took an active part in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and in the subsequent protection of the administrative border of Ossetia with Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the First Chechen campaign, the Ministry of Defense of Russia formed a motorized rifle battalion named after General Yermolov from volunteer Cossacks. Its effectiveness was so high that it frightened the pro-Kremlin Chechens, who saw the appearance of the Cossack units as the first step towards the revival of the Terek region. Under their pressure, the battalion was withdrawn from Chechnya and disbanded. During the second campaign, the 205th motorized rifle brigade was equipped with Cossacks, as well as commandant companies serving in the Shelkovsky, Naursky and Nadterechny regions of Chechnya. In addition, significant masses of Cossacks, having concluded a contract, fought in "ordinary", that is, non-Cossack units. More than 90 people from the Cossack units received government awards as a result of the hostilities, all Cossacks who participated in the hostilities and clearly fulfilled their duties received Cossack awards. For 13 years now, Cossacks in southern Russia have been holding annual field training camps, within the framework of which command and staff training with unit commanders and officers, classes in fire, tactical, topographic, mine and medical training are organized. Cossack units, companies and platoons are led by officers of the Russian army with combat experience who took part in operations in hot spots in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions. And the Cossack horse patrols became reliable assistants to the Russian border guards and the police.
The Cossacks are one of the brightest and most glorious pages of Russian history. It is not surprising that over time, the image of the Cossack became the property of folk art, acquiring all sorts of speculations that turned into persistent delusions.
Cossacks - a stronghold of democracy
Writers and historians of the 19th century idealized the Cossacks. Shevchenko, Drahomanov, Chernyshevsky, Kostomarov saw in the Zaporizhian freemen a simple people who, having freed themselves from the lord's captivity, tried to build a democratic society. This mythology continues to this day.
The Zaporizhian Sich was indeed a champion of the idea of emancipating the peasantry from serfdom, but life in the Cossack society was far from democratic principles. The peasants who got into the Sich felt like strangers there: the Cossacks did not like the plowmen and kept apart from them.
When registered Cossacks appeared, they began to actively seize land and turn into landlords, and some sought to achieve noble rights. Later, noble gentry also actively reached out to the Cossacks. By the middle of the 17th century, the Cossack aristocracy was not much inferior to the small and middle nobility in terms of prosperity.
Cossacks - the first Cossacks
There is a strong opinion that the Cossacks originate from the Zaporizhzhya Sich. Partly it is. After the dissolution of the Zaporozhian Sich, many Cossacks became part of the newly created Black Sea, Azov and Kuban Cossacks.
However, in parallel with the emergence of the Cossack freemen in the Dnieper region in the middle of the 16th century, Cossack communities began to appear on the Don. It is known that in the army of Ivan the Terrible, who besieged Kazan, there were 10,000 Cossacks. The first mention in the annals of the word "Cossack" dates back to 1444.
Literally from the very beginning of the existence of the Zaporizhzhya and Don Cossacks, close ties have been established between them. History has preserved for us information about numerous campaigns in which Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks fought side by side.
Entry into the regular army
The role of the Cossacks who defended the southern borders of the Russian state can hardly be overestimated. Even when the danger of raids subsided, the Cossack formations were willingly involved by the Russian government in military service.
However, as historian Boris Frolov notes, the Cossacks "were not part of the regular army and were not used as the main tactical force." It was a separate military structure.
The Cossack troops most often consisted of regiments of light cavalry, which had the status of "irregular". Until the last days of autocracy, the reward for service was the inviolability of the lands where the Cossacks lived, as well as various benefits, for example, for trade or fishing.
The Cossack went to work with his own weapons
This statement is not entirely true. Indeed, the Cossacks mostly bought weapons with their own money, but only a wealthy person could afford to buy a good firearm. An ordinary Cossack could count on captured or old weapons received “on lease”, sometimes with a redemption period of up to 30 years.
But there are documents that confirm that the Cossack formations were supplied with weapons. So, in 1788, Grigory Potemkin wrote to the Black Sea chieftain Sidor Bely: “Use every effort to increase the Cossacks and accept them, supply them with weapons. In the case when all the weapons will be in distribution, imagine to me why I will order you to release it again. ”
However, there were not enough weapons, and what was available was often outdated. It is known that until the 1870s, the Cossack cavalry fired flintlock pistols.
Khazar origin of the Cossacks
This myth arose during the time of the Hetmanate and was popular among the anti-Russian part of the Cossack elite, primarily those around Ivan Mazepa. According to the “constitution of Orlik” (general clerk Mazepa), the “Cossack people” used to be called “Khazar” and adopted Orthodoxy from Constantinople long before the baptism of Rus'.
According to the historian Tatyana Tairova-Yakovleva, although this concept has an obscure origin, it pursues a completely transparent goal: not to leave even a hint of the commonality of the Russian and Ukrainian people, as well as to secularize the genealogy of the Cossacks and break the religious ties between the Hetmanate and Moscow.
Letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan
The insulting response of the Zaporozhye Cossacks to the request of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV to lay down their arms still raises questions among researchers. The controversy of the situation is given by the fact that the original letter has not been preserved, and therefore most historians question the authenticity of this document.
The first researcher of the correspondence, A.N. Popov, called the letter "a false letter, fictitious by our scribes." And the American Daniel Woh established that the letter that has survived to this day was subjected to textual alteration over time and became part of the anti-Turkish pamphlets. According to Wo, this forgery is connected with the process of formation of the national self-consciousness of Ukrainians.
Cossacks are a separate people
This point of view has existed for a long time and is actively discussed in modern media. Defending their identity, the Cossacks often opposed themselves to neighboring peoples.
Let us recall at least the words of General Pyotr Krasnov, spoken in the summer of 1944 in Potsdam: “Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. Russians are hostile to you. Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushed and exploited them. Now the hour has come when we, the Cossacks, can create our own life independent of Moscow.”
Anthropological studies of the Cossacks, conducted by V.F. Kashibadze and O.G. Nasonov, showed that the history of the Don Cossacks implies migration processes from the southeastern regions of Central Russia, as well as a slight inclusion of southern and eastern elements. The example of the Don Cossacks shows us a motley ethnic picture, which includes representatives of several dozen nationalities, among which there are quite unexpected ones - Moldavians, Turks, Estonians, Tajiks.
Devotion of the Cossacks to the Russian Crown
The Cossacks did not always show loyal feelings towards the Russian monarchy. Often the interests of the Cossacks went against the established order in the empire. So it was during the largest popular riots - uprisings led by the Don Cossacks Kondraty Bulavin, Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev.
Often, the Cossacks defiantly defended their position even during difficult foreign policy situations in the country. During the Time of Troubles, the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks were noted for their active support of impostors, and all the same Cossacks many times violated their obligations given to the Russian Tsar, entering into alliances with Poland, Turkey or Sweden.
Mass transition of the Cossacks to the side of the Wehrmacht
It has been established that Hitler's Germany, skillfully using propaganda, managed to lure up to 40 thousand Cossacks to its side. First of all, these were residents of the villages who had personal scores with the Soviet authorities - they suffered during the decossackization and collectivization.
However, given the total number of Soviet citizens who fought on the side of the Wehrmacht - according to various sources, from 800 thousand to 1 million 500 thousand people - this figure is not surprising. Much more Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army. If historians count no more than 2 Cossack corps in the Wehrmacht, then there were 17 of them in the Soviet army.
A la Cossack
A LA KAZAK*à la casaque. In a Cossack way, without ceremony, rudely. Nicholas, animated by the devotion of Kleinmichel and his executors, thought to introduce this arbitrariness into European law, cracking down on Turkey and disposing of the principalities à la casaque. K. N. Lebedev Zap. // RA 1900 3 249. || Like a Cossack. She dresses a little strange à la casaque, that is, she mostly wears a shirt made of a dark pink foulard girded with a belt at home. Rastopchina Falling star. // РВ 1886 10 716.
Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language. - M.: Dictionary publishing house ETS http://www.ets.ru/pg/r/dict/gall_dict.htm. Nikolay Ivanovich Epishkin [email protected] . 2010 .
See what "a la Cossack" is in other dictionaries:
COSSACK- husband. or a Cossack (probably from the Central Asian kazmak, to wander, wander like a haiduk, haidamaka, from a guide; jump from run away, run; a tramp from wander, etc. The Kyrgyz themselves call themselves a Cossack), a military inhabitant, a settled warrior belonging to ... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
COSSACK- Cossack, serf in the Kholmsk region. 1495. Scribe. II, 850. Vasco the Cossack, a peasant in Paozerye. 1498. Scribe. IV, 15. Cossack, serf in the Kotor region. 1498. Scribe. IV, 95. Cossack Skripitsyn, rumor, St. 15th century A. K. II, 5. Cossack Zakharov, Starodub peasant. ... ... Biographical Dictionary
Cossack Vasyl- Ivan Mykolaichuk as Cossack Vasyl Appearance Missing letter (1829 1831) Creator ... Wikipedia
COSSACK- (Cossack is outdated), Cossack, pl. Cossacks and (obsolete) Cossacks, husband. (Turk. kazak bean). 1. A representative of a taxable or taxable class, who evaded heavy state duties and sought an easier life or in free settlements along ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov
Cossack- free Cossack .. Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999. Cossack Cossack, Kuban, stanitsa, Cossack, Cossack, Cossack, rubak, terets, plastun, serviceman, Serdyuk, White Cossack, ... ... Synonym dictionary
Kazak FM- Radio Rocks Region City Krasnodar Country ... Wikipedia
COSSACK- KAZAK, a, pl. and, ov and and, ov, husband. 1. In the old days in Ukraine and Russia: a member of the military agricultural community of free settlers on the outskirts of the state. Zaporozhye k. Donskoy k. 2. On the Don, in the Kuban, Terek, Amur and in other military areas: ... ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
COSSACK- (tur.). 1) irregular cavalry in Russia. 2) a kind of women's outerwear, similar to the Cossack. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. COSSACK women's costume, a kind of raincoat. Dictionary of foreign words included ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
KAZAK (Kasack) German- (1896 1966) German writer. In the mystical symbolic novel City Beyond the River (1947), existentialist criticism of the leveling of the individual in capitalist society... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Cossack Lugansk- pseudonym Vl. Iv. Dalia... Biographical Dictionary
Cossack (free man in Rus')- Cossack, Cossack (Turk. Daredevil, free man), a person who broke with his social environment (14th-17th centuries); from the end of the 15th century K. began to call the free people of the outskirts of the Russian state (see Cossacks) ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Books
- , Kundryutskov B.. Description: Cossack epic in the setting of the Russian diaspora. Literature of Russian Cossacks. From the book: ʻI had an acquaintance, Ivan Ilyich Gamorkin, only, what villages and all that, to tell ... Buy for 1848 UAH (only Ukraine)
- Cossack Ivan Ilyich Gamorkin. Simple notes about him, his godfather, Kondrat Evgrafovich Kudryavov, B. Kundryutskov. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Description: Cossack epic in the context of the Russian diaspora. Literature of Russian Cossacks. From the book: "I had ...
Bubnov - Taras Bulba
In 1907, an argot dictionary was published in France, in which the following aphorism was cited in the article "Russian": "Scratch a Russian - and you will find a Cossack, scratch a Cossack - and you will find a bear."
This aphorism is attributed to Napoleon himself, who indeed described the Russians as barbarians and identified them as such with the Cossacks - like many Frenchmen, who could call both the hussars and the Kalmyks or Bashkirs Cossacks. In some cases, this word could even become synonymous with light cavalry.
How little we know about the Cossacks.
In a narrow sense, the image of a Cossack is inextricably linked with the image of brave and freedom-loving men with a stern warlike look, with an earring in their left ear, long mustaches and a hat on their heads. And this is more than reliable, but not enough. Meanwhile, the history of the Cossacks is very unique and interesting. And in this article we will try to very superficially, but at the same time meaningfully understand and understand who the Cossacks are, what is their peculiarity and uniqueness, and how the history of Russia is inextricably linked with the original culture and history of the Cossacks.
Today it is very difficult to understand the theories of the origin of not only the Cossacks, but also the very word-term "Cossack". Even today, researchers, scientists and experts cannot give a definite and precise answer - who are the Cossacks and from whom did they come.
But at the same time, there are many more or less probable theories-versions of the origin of the Cossacks. Today there are more than 18 of them - and these are only official versions. Each of them has many convincing scientific arguments, advantages and disadvantages.
However, all theories fall into two main groups:
- theory of the runaway (migration) emergence of the Cossacks.
- autochthonous, that is, local, indigenous origin of the Cossacks.
According to autochthonous theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks lived in Kabarda, were the descendants of the Caucasian Circassians (Cherkas, Yases). This theory of the origin of the Cossacks is also called eastern. It was she who was taken as the basis of their evidence base by one of the most famous Russian historians, orientalists and ethnologists V. Shambarov and L. Gumilyov.
In their opinion, the Cossacks arose through the merger of Kasogs and Brodniks after the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The Kasogs (Kasakhs, Kasaks, Ka-azats) are an ancient Circassian people who inhabited the territory of the lower Kuban in the 10th-14th centuries, and the Brodniks are a mixed people of Turkic-Slavic origin, who absorbed the remnants of the Bulgars, Slavs, and also, possibly, the steppe Oghuz.
Dean of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University S. P. Karpov, working in the archives of Venice and Genoa, found there references to the Cossacks with Turkic and Armenian names, who guarded the medieval city of Tana* and other Italian colonies in the Northern Black Sea region from raids.
*Tana- a medieval city on the left bank of the Don, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe modern city of Azov (Rostov Region of the Russian Federation). It existed in the XII-XV centuries under the rule of the Italian trading republic of Genoa.
One of the first mentions of the Cossacks, according to the Eastern version, are displayed in the legend, the author of which was Stefan Yavorsky, Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (1692):
“In 1380, the Cossacks presented Dmitry Donskoy with the icon of Our Lady of the Don and participated in the battle against Mamai on the Kulikovo field.”
According to migration theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks were freedom-loving Russian people who fled beyond the borders of the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian states either due to natural historical reasons or under the influence of social antagonisms.
The German historian G. Steckl points out that“The first Russian Cossacks were baptized and Russified Tatar Cossacks, since until the end of the 15th century. all the Cossacks who lived both in the steppes and in the Slavic lands could only be Tatars. Of decisive importance for the formation of the Russian Cossacks was the influence of the Tatar Cossacks on the border of the Russian lands. The influence of the Tatars was manifested in everything - in the way of life, military operations, ways of fighting for existence in the steppe. It even extended to the spiritual life and appearance of the Russian Cossacks.
And the historian Karamzin advocated a mixed version of the origin of the Cossacks:
“The Cossacks were not only in Ukraine, where their name became known from history around 1517; but it is likely that in Russia it is older than the Batu invasion and belonged to Torki and Berendei, who lived on the banks of the Dnieper, below Kyiv. There we find the first dwelling of the Little Russian Cossacks. Torki and Berendei were called Cherkasy: Cossacks - also ... some of them, not wanting to submit to either the Mughals or Lithuania, lived as free people on the islands of the Dnieper, fenced with rocks, impenetrable reeds and swamps; lured to themselves many Russians who fled from oppression; mixed with them and under the name Komkov made up one people, which became completely Russian all the easier because their ancestors, having lived in the Kyiv region since the tenth century, were already almost Russian themselves. Multiplying more and more in number, nourishing the spirit of independence and brotherhood, the Cossacks formed a military Christian Republic in the southern countries of the Dnieper, began to build villages, fortresses in these places devastated by the Tatars; undertook to be the defenders of the Lithuanian possessions from the Crimeans, Turks and won special patronage of Sigismund I, who gave them many civil liberties along with lands above the Dnieper rapids, where the city of Cherkasy is named after them ... "
I would not like to go into details, listing all the official and unofficial versions of the origin of the Cossacks. Firstly, it is long and not always interesting. Secondly, most theories are only versions, hypotheses. There is no unambiguous answer about the origin and origin of the Cossacks as a distinctive ethnic group. It is important to understand something else - the process of formation of the Cossacks was long and complex, and it is obvious that representatives of different ethnic groups were mixed at the core of it. And it's hard to disagree with Karamzin.
Some oriental historians believe that the Tatars were the ancestors of the Cossacks, and that, allegedly, the first detachments of the Cossacks fought on the side against Rus' in the Battle of Kulikovo. Others, on the contrary, argue that the Cossacks were already on the side of Rus' at that time. Some refer to legends and myths about gangs of Cossacks - robbers, whose main trade was robbery, robbery, theft ...
For example, the satirist Zadornov, explaining the term for the emergence of the well-known children's yard game "Cossacks-robbers", refers to "unbridled by the free character of the Cossack class, which was" the most violent, uneducable Russian class.
It's hard to believe, because in the memory of my childhood, each of the boys preferred to play for the Cossacks. And the name of the game is taken from life, since its rules imitate reality: in tsarist Russia, the Cossacks were people's self-defense, protecting the civilian population from the raids of robbers.
It is possible that in the original basis of the early groups of the Cossacks there were various ethnic elements. But for contemporaries, the Cossacks evokes something native, Russian. I recall the famous speech of Taras Bulba:
The first communities of the Cossacks
It is known that the first communities of Cossacks began to form as early as the 15th century (although some sources refer to an earlier time). These were communities of free Don, Dnieper, Volga and Grebensky Cossacks.
A little later, in the first half of the 16th century, the Zaporozhian Sich was formed. In the 2nd half of the same century - communities of free Terek and Yaik, and at the end of the century - Siberian Cossacks.
In the early stages of the existence of the Cossacks, the main types of their economic activities were crafts (hunting, fishing, beekeeping), later cattle breeding, and from the 2nd floor. XVII century - agriculture. An important role was played by military booty, later - by the state salary. Through military and economic colonization, the Cossacks quickly mastered the vast expanses of the Wild Field, then the outskirts of Russia and Ukraine.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. Cossacks led by Ermak Timofeevich, V.D. Poyarkov, V.V. Atlasov, S.I. Dezhnev, E.P. Khabarov and other explorers participated in the successful development of Siberia and the Far East. Perhaps these are the most famous first reliable references to the Cossacks, beyond doubt.
V. I. Surikov "Conquest of Siberia by Yermak" Found an error? Select it and left click Ctrl+Enter.
